The planned door-to-door registrations will form part of the broadcasting migration programme. This comes after the province, together with the Communication Department, held a three-day digital migration colloquium where plans to switch from analogue to digital were discussed. The Free State will be the first province where analogue transmitters will be switched off in December.

During her address at the colloquium held in Bloemfontein, Mokonyane confirmed that there has been several delays in the implementation of the project, which led to South Africa being unable to meet the deadline set by the International Telecommunications Union.

She said the situation had become of great concern to government as the delays have been costly for the government and the industry at large.

Nonetheless, Mokonyane said the implementation of the project will unlock a valuable spectrum and can be used by the government to drive the forth industrial revolution. She assured the public that this is sure to bring benefits for content development, that will be generated at local levels as more channels will become available and create more job opportunities.

Her department is, however, being lambasted for abandoning the current model for the provision of set top boxes which used to rely exclusively on public funding. This, after they have already spent over R10 billion on the project.

Mokonyane, earlier this week told parliament that the government will no longer buy, store, transport or install set-up boxes and that the new approach will include the involvement of the private sector and the telecommunications industry as a whole.

OFM News